Broadview Gardens

Head Gardener's Comment

Broadview Gardens is a unique garden originally designed and maintained as a teaching resource for students at Hadlow College, now open to the public. The 8 acres of garden are formed around a 100 metre long double mixed border backed with clipped Yew hedges and columnar Oak trees. From the border run two grass avenues lined with clipped hedges. Hanging from this structure are a variety of large and small contemporary and traditional gardens designed and built by students of Hadlow College. Each year, from September to May, students build new gardens on themes from domestic gardens, show gardens to public landscape styles using an extensive variety of plants and materials in common and innovative ways. A selection of the gardens currently able to be seen are The Grasses Garden, The Medicinal Garden, The Oriental Garden, The subtropical style Garden (May to October), The Italian Garden and the Dry Garden. There is also a natural style space with lake, meadow and wooded areas, and an ornamental planted lake with moist border.

History

Broadview Gardens are used as a teaching resource for our BA (Hons Garden Design, our HND in Amenity Horticulture and other programmes (including the University of Greenwich MA and BA in Landscape Architecture).

Plants of Note

The Gardens hold two National Collections; the National Collection of Japanese Anemones, flowering from August to October, and the National Collection of Hellebores, flowering February to March. Throughout the gardens there is an extensive range of unusual plants and collections, in addition to more familiar plants used in unconventional ways. As part of the learning experience of visiting the gardens we aim to keep most of the plants labelled.